Vauxhall Motors Story: August and September 2016

Hello folks and welcome back to Ellesmere Port, a town that is now featured on the European football map thanks to the wonderful Motormen! We qualified for the Europa League in somewhat surprising and lucky circumstances and after a very busy summer it was time for another Premier League season, the second one in the club’s history. I guess you are all curious to see how my new signings adapted to life in England and you might also want to know whether we managed to qualify for the group stages of the Europa League. Don’t worry, you’ll find the answers if you read on :)

Vauxhall vs Manchester City (Premier League)

Venue: Rivacre Park

Attendance: 10,140

Starting line up: Dean Bouzanis — Kaka, Louis Laing, Mervin Simon, Grant Baddeley — Stephan El Shaarawy, Mark Brown, Graham Howson, Andrew Surman — Zé Carlos, Pavol Vesely

Team Talk: You can win today!

It wasn’t the easiest of opening games, I’ll tell you that! Manchester City are the defending Champions League holders and as if that wasn’t enough I had to do without four of my best players as they were away at the Olympic Games! Those four are Julian Bazzi, Javier Godoy, Leandro Velasco and Parana, all of them proud to represent their nations in the biggest international sporting event. However, we played a pretty good first half and even managed to create two good chances but we were denied by an amazing Joe Hart on both occasions. The Citizens had nothing to show in open play but they were still threatening on set pieces, they came close to breaking the deadlock twice from corner kicks.

Half time score: 0-0

Half time team talk: You can win today!

Half time substitutions: Shyamdew Weibolt for Brown, Ibrahima MBow for Surman

I was really hoping to clinch a win after that good first half but those hopes lasted for just four minutes after the break, a clumsy tackle from Mervin Simon left the door wide open and we were punished without mercy. The game changed, we were no longer able to create dangerous opportunities and Manchester City wrapped things up with another two goals, a superb volley and a corner kick header. The score was quite harsh but that’s how you win games, you have to take your chances…

Full time team talk: Sympathise.

Man of the match: Louis Laing

Flop of the match: Kaka

Match Stats

Video Highlights

Click here to watch the highlights.

Rosenborg vs Vauxhall (Europa League 4th Qual Rnd Leg 1)

Venue: Lerkendal

Attendance: 18,359

Starting line up: Dean Bouzanis — Julian Marino, Louis Laing, Mervin Simon, Grant Baddeley — Stephan El Shaarawy, Mark Brown, Shyamdew Weibolt, Andrew Surman — Parana, Pavol Vesely

Team Talk: You can win today!

This was a very important game for us, the last step towards the Europa League group stage. I always prefer having the first leg away in such ties because my teams are all about scoring goals and you all know that it’s a good advantage to score away if you want a quiet second leg. Unfortunately three of the four players were still at the Olympics and we also received some bad news from the physio, Graham Howson picked up a knock in training and was going to be out for 3 weeks. Bad luck continued after the opening whistle, Rosenborg took the lead after just 50 seconds! That didn’t affect my lads too much though, the team was playing pretty well and we leveled the match on 14 minutes when Parana played a good through pass for Pavol Vesely and the young Slovakian striker found the bottom corner of the net. We continued to dominate but luck was definitely not on our side, Rosenborg scored a second goal right out of nowhere just before the half time break, it was their second shot on target…

Half time score: 2-1

Half time team talk: Pleased.

Half time substitutions: Marcelo for El Shaarawy, Elias Kost for Weibolt, Connor Wickham for Vesely

I was proud of the lads despite the result so I opted for a positive half time team talk, I was sure that we would get the result because we were far better than our opponents. In fact, we made it all square after just four minutes as substitute Marcelo pushed in a good cross from Andrew Surman. We continued to press forward and things got better three minutes before the hour mark as one of Rosenborg‘s defenders got sent off for a professional foul on Parana. The Brazilian striker deserved to get on the score sheet himself and he did that in style on 67 minutes as he powered home after skipping past a defender. We could have scored a few more but the game ended with a rather harsh red card for right back Julian Marino. We were certain of making it to the group stage considering the result though and also the much weaker than expected Rosenborg team.

Full time team talk: Well done!

Man of the match: Parana

Flop of the match: Stephan El Shaarawy

Match Stats

Video Highlights

Click here to watch the highlights.

The next game saw us losing 4-2 at Liverpool but that was a rather difficult game for us and not because of the opponents. My Argentine trio was on a plane back from the Olympics in Brazil while the other lads were tired after the trip to Norway. We put up a good fight at Anfield Road but eventually crumbled in the second half as fatigue kicked in. The second leg against Rosenborg was a mere formality, we put no less than seven goals past them with Pavol Vesely bagging four of them and Parana netting a double. The last match of the month brought us the first Premier League win of the season, newly-promoted Southampton were unable to cope with my Brazilian duo in attack as Zé Carlos netted a hat-trick and Parana chipped in with another brace.

The Europa League groups were drawn, we were seeded second so we were handed a decent group with Slavia Sofia as the weakest side and the likes of Koln and Olympiakos as our rivals for the first two spots.

Starting today I will introduce a new section in my posts, the top five players in our team at the end of each month. At the end of August Parana was clearly in the lead with nine goals and six assists to his name, Graham Howson was second and Leandro Velasco was third despite not playing too many games for us due to the Olympics. The most pleasant surprise is Pavol Vesely, the Slovakian striker that returned to the first team after spending the last half of the previous season on loan. He was a killer in the Europa League and he is now the first in line to replace Parana and Zé Carlos.

September had a few tough ones in store for us, first an away game at Sunderland before an easy Europa League group stage debut against Bulgarian side Slavia Sofia. Then we had a double encounter with Wolves before wrapping up the month with a tough clash against Koln in Germany.

Do those fixtures look interesting? I guess they do so please move on to the next page to see what happened in September!

Go to the next page to read the rest of the story.

Sunderland finished 7th last season, I was very curious to see my team in action against them especially since our Argentinians were finally back from the Olympics…

Sunderland vs Vauxhall (Premier League)

Venue: The Stadium Of Light

Attendance: 41,143

Starting line up: Dean Bouzanis — Julian Marino, Louis Laing, Julian Bazzi, Javier Godoy — Leandro Velasco, Shyamdew Weibolt, Graham Howson, Andrew Surman — Parana, Zé Carlos

Team Talk: You can win today!

And we got off to a flying start! Julian Bazzi proved that he was worth waiting for and he powered in a corner kick header just two minutes into the game to put us ahead. Unfortunately Sunderland pegged us back after just five minutes, they were awarded a penalty kick and they converted it. We continued to push forward until half time but it ended all square, my strikers were not really doing the damage that I would have expected them to do.

Half time score: 1-1

Half time team talk: You can win today!

Half time substitutions: none

I was still quite confident and we finally saw a glimpse of Zé Carlos‘ amazing talent, he scored twice in five minutes to put us safely ahead! First he cushioned a long kick from Dean Bouzanis with an incredible first touch before rounding the keeper and then he coolly converted a counter attack to make it 3-1. We were in control of the game after those two goals but Javier Godoy picked up a needless red card during injury time, he earned a three-match ban from the FA and a warning from me.

Full time team talk: Well done!

Man of the match: Zé Carlos

Flop of the match: Javier Godoy

Match Stats

Video Highlights

Click here to watch the highlights.

As I expected we eased past Slavia Sofia in the first Europa League group stage match but the double encounter with Wolves was quite tough. The first one was quite spectacular and we did well to come back from 2-1 behind to win 4-2 and qualify for the Carling Cup 4th round. The league match was a bit different, this time Wolves appeared to be the better side and I admit that we were lucky to get a point there despite taking the lead through Connor Wickham.

The last game of the month was a tough trip to Germany to meet Koln, they were beaten 3-1 at Olympiakos in the first group match and they wanted to get their record back on track at home. Unfortunately we had three more injuries to worry about: Pavol Vesely, Julian Marino and Kaka…

Koln vs Vauxhall (Europa League Group I)

Venue: RheinEnergieStadion

Attendance: 39,285

Starting line up: Dean Bouzanis — Javier Godoy, Louis Laing, Mervin Simon, Grant Baddeley — Leandro Velasco, Radek Vecera, Shyamdew Weibolt, Andrew Surman — Parana, Connor Wickham

Team Talk: You can win today!

We got off to a great start again, Parana blasted in a volley after just five minutes and Mervin Simon could have made it 2-0 moments later but his corner kick header struck the post. Simon did find the back of the net on 13 minutes but unfortunately it was the wrong one, he scored an own-goal and made it all square… We were playing well though and we deservedly reclaimed the lead five minutes later when Andrew Surman rounded off a good move with a fine finish from inside the penalty area. Our defense didn’t seem to be up to the task though, Koln made it 2-2 on 25 minutes and the goal came as a result of a throw-in… Fortunately our attacking players were a class above the rest and we took the lead again on the stroke of half time courtesy of a great run and finish from right winger Leandro Velasco.

Half time score: 2-3

Half time team talk: Pleased.

Half time substitutions: Graham Howson for Vecera, Elias Kost for Weibolt, Ibrahima MBow for Wickham

We started the second half in an equally dominant manner but a couple of chances went begging before Koln sent us a wake-up call by hitting the post on the hour mark. The lads understood the message and Parana doubled our lead with a great goal a minute later. Koln pulled one back immediately though, you can never trust these Germans… Ibrahima MBow wasted a huge chance to restore our two-goal lead a couple of minutes later but Mervin Simon stepped up and bagged another one of his trademark corner kick headers. It was all over but not before another goal, a great long ball from Graham Howson found MBow clean through and the Senegalese striker finally scored.

Full time team talk: Well done!

Man of the match: Parana

Flop of the match: Louis Laing

Match Stats

Video Highlights

Click here to watch the highlights.

I’m still waiting to have a clean bill of health this season, we always had at least three lads injured since July… Andrew Driver is still unavailable and his replacement, on-loan Kai Kramer, also picked up a nasty one… I forgot to mention that Julian Bazzi and Zé Carlos are unavailable for the Europa League, I was unable to register them because their former teams did that before the transfers…

A special case of medical attention is left back Nikao, he was not available at all since his transfer in July. He got injured right after putting pen to paper and then always managed to get himself in trouble while playing in the reserves team to get some match fitness. I hope that his string of injuries will stop soon, otherwise I might sell him in January.

Now let’s have a look at the top five again! Parana is still leading, he scored 13 goals and made 8 assists in 12 starts, that’s an awesome record by any standards! His fellow countryman Zé Carlos climbed up into second place with five goals in four appearances while Pavol Vesely climbed up into third with his eight goals and four assists. Leandro Velasco and Graham Howson conclude the top five, both did very well so far.

October will be quite tough as we’ll play Tottenham and Manchester United in the league either side of a tough European clash with Greek giants Olympiakos. November will be extremely busy and it might become even more congested if we get past Huddersfield in the Carling Cup (which we should).

Alright folks, that’s about it for now. I hope that you enjoyed the new two-month update, I plan to stick to this format at least for a while. Thanks a lot for reading and stay tuned for a very nice surprise coming in the next few days, prepared by me and Darren ;) As always, feel free to ask questions, make requests or just leave your thoughts in the comments section below.